Greetings all. I'd like to get your take on what occurred during my ordering process and my current situation with my MINI dealer. I'm also curious if anything similar has happened to any of you.

Before heading to MINI of Peabody to order my Countryman All4, I went through the MINI configurator numerous times to try out different builds. When I was happy with the build, I printed out the sheet, brought it to the dealer, and said "build it."

Unfortunately, the build did not include heated seats, due to a bug in the MINI website. I have documented the bug here:
In all of my using of the configurator, I never noticed that the heated seats were being left out. Funny enough, two days after sending the video to the dealership, the MINI configurator changed and now has a blatant alert message about the part conflict.

My MA and Sales Manager have been trying to put the blame back on me, since I should have noticed that it wasn't listed on the build sheet. Fair enough; I should have noticed it. But, the Sales Manager even admitted to me that it struck him as odd that there were no heated seats in the build. Yet he didn't check with me at the time.

The GM of the dealership stated a few weeks ago that his sales team should have caught the error. The only offer to rectify the situation I have received is that they can have after-market seats installed, at my expense. This does not sit well with me.

Since my original conversation with the GM of MINI of Peabody, I have sent him three emails to follow up and have not heard a thing back.

I'm about ready to cancel my order and demand my deposit back. They had (and still have) an opportunity to rectify this, but at this juncture, I do not have the highest of hopes that they will.

So, what say all you wise folks? Is this really my problem? Should they have caught the error and alerted me? Should I just cancel and take my business elsewhere?

Finally, have any of you run into this problem with the heated seats?

 

Yep, I noticed the exact same thing when I built my MINI Clubman back in early September. It takes you through the seats first and then the packages, which I think should be reversed. I added the cold weather package like you did, then added the Fully Loaded Package. I noticed Cold Weather was greyed out which got me suspicious, and noticed the heated seats were once again an option, so had to click them again. Not user friendly. My guess is since the mirrors are included in another part of the Loaded or Fully Loaded package, it creates a conflict, but the correct thing for the website to do would be to automatically add the heated seats when it rectified the conflict. You're right, that's not what the website did back then.

What to do next? Dunno. Is the dealer willing to cancel the order and give you your deposit back and then reorder with the right equipment? It's not like they won't be able to sell the first MINI.

 

Also, I noticed that this problem only occurred during the week or two I ordered my MINI, which looks like the same week you ordered yours. The week before it worked fine, a couple of weeks later it worked fine.

 

The dealer is definitely not into canceling the order and reordering. A new, nice car without heated seats is a white elephant in New England.

After a few pointed emails today, the GM finally called me back. He said that I should have received an out of office email (didn't), as he was in Chicago (they don't have Internet in Chicago?). He offered to pay for the after-market installation.

I'm still vexed on the matter though. Sure, they may be better (they also go up the back, factory ones don't), but someone's gonna have to rip apart my baby right after delivery. They'll remove the leather, put the pad on, and put the leather back on. Then, they'll drill a hole in the side of the seat for the switch.

I'll be asking about the make/model of the after-market part, and will investigate the vendor and warranty as well.

The irony of all this is that I make websites better for a living (hence the video) - I REALLY should have noticed the bug. Was concentrating too hard on the beautiful creature I was creating.

 

I think I'd pull the pin on the order. those factory heated seats sure are nice, and I don't think I would like them pulling the seats apart either.

 

You have every right to cancel the order. I sure would because I wouldn't be able to stand having a brand new expensive car with non-factory heated seats.
Reorder it as YOU want it.

 

Suggest you ask your dealer/GM to determine if they can order a new set of heated seats from MINI through their parts department. They would also need to reprogram the CPU and put in a switch/wiring.

Since you didn't pay for heated seats in your build/order, you could offer to split the total cost of the replacement seats and install with your dealer. This could be more cost effective and a quicker resolve than some of your other options if you really don't want the aftermarket option your dealer is offering (which is very fair IMO).

Otherwise, your only other choice is to cancel the order, lose the deposit, and reorder what you want from another dealership.

 

Thanks for the input so far everyone - I appreciate the thoughts.

I think my next step is to learn more about the after-market parts and how the seats look/feel after. Plus I need to look into the reputation of the vendor they intend to use.

If at all possible, I'd love to avoid canceling the order because:

• Well, I want my car
• Will cause a shaky start to the dealer relationship (they are the place to go for service around here)
• Dealing with the deposit (I hate conflict)

 

It would appear that the after-market seats are pretty darn nice:

http://webmat.classicsofttrim.com/li...del=741-Cooper

Classic Soft Trim seems to be a reputable company - though, the local establishment doesn't have any Yelp reviews.

I'm leaning towards just doing the after-market thing.

 

I would just do that. And they're essentially free now right?

 

They are. Can put that money towards tinting. :D